Media, Culture, and Modernity - Essay Example

s Feminist theory Introduction A thought that is ‘seeded’ into a film maker’s mind is outputted in his or hers films. That ‘seeding’ of thought could be influenced by the ‘environment’ in which the filmmaker lives. The filmmaker’s mind is like a visual interpreter, which ‘translates’ the ideas, incidents etc into cinematic form. When the filmmaker mind does that, he/she will be able to bring to reel life, the real life happenings and environment. Normally, human’s lives are composed of situations and incidents which sounds interesting, inspirational, innovative, ‘injuring’ etc, etc. And, there is a proportion among filmmakers who bring these situations and incidents into a cinematic form, replicating exactly or using a fictionalized version of the real life happenings. These attempts by the filmmaker to ‘picturize’ the real life happenings, always comes loaded with fetes and critics. Theories More than fetes, these attempts to create real life inspired works will always receive criticisms from various quarters. Some times, these criticisms will be done in an organized or in a logical way using theories formulated by great thinkers. That is, based on the set theories, film or any other work of art can be analyzed, praised and criticized. As times moves on, new theories are expounded by various thinkers relating to a specific field. As these new theories, brings in new ideas or concepts, moving away from existing theories and relating to the current times, it will have the Modernist touches. So, the term Post Modernism or Post Modern theories are applied when wide-ranging set of developments takes place in line with the changing times, in different fields initiated by various thinkers, giving rise to theories in the field of philosophy, art, literature, culture, importantly critical theory, etc. The field of critical theory is a widespread one with any human activity coming under it. But, the main concept is, the activity will be viewed from a critical angle most of the times. Among the many human activities and the existing theories related to it, theories particular to “half of humans” has evolved and is evolving even now. “Half of humans” are the female component of the population and theories specific to them have evolved in earlier times, and are forming or modifying now also with the modernist perspective. So, according to the current times, theories relating to females or feminist theories have formed imbuing the current or advanced concepts. Thus, feminist theories have also attained the modernist touch giving raise to postmodern feminism. “Postmodern feminism is an approach to feminist theory that incorporates postmodern and post-structuralist theory “ (wikipedia). So, post modern feminist theories also comes under Post modernism The post modern feminist theories are used to analyze, praise and criticize any fields, which has female participation in it. More than analyze and praise, these post modern feminist theories are used to criticize any field, which doesn’t use the women properly. Even though, women of the world are making giant strides in various fields, in some field they are treated they in a optimum way, with subjugation prevailing all through the hierarchy. In that case, feminist theories are normally used to criticize those subjugations in a particular field. For example, films portraying female characters in a ‘degrading’ way will be the subject of criticism from feminists. Even though, the filmmakers may try to convince or counter the feminists by saying that they are portraying their female characters based on real life only, they will face criticisms like they are exaggerating the real life, stereotyping women, using female actors as a commodity, exploiting them etc, etc. These thoughts of the feminists as discussed above got theorized as feminist theories or post modern feminism. So, this paper will analyze the popular culture artifact of films, specifically Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, using postmodernism feminist theory (one of the offshoots of postmodernist theories) by focusing on how the female characters in the film gets ‘caught’ in certain stereotypes and due to the fixed mindset of the viewers. Post Modernist Feminist Theory The views and the thought process of the individuals supporting women’s rights, issues, interests, needs, etc, and the resultant fighting against subjugation and violence against women only represent feminism. When these views and thought process of the feminist are theorized or analyzed philosophically with a modern touch, it is constituted as Post Modernist Feminist theories. “…feminist theory might have been interpreted sympathetically as a well-meant albeit patronizing attempt to refashion feminist criticism” (Baym).The Feminist theories encompass all the views and the works carried out by various individuals from different fields focusing on womens roles and their lives. The important themes of the feminist theories when particularly viewed from the cinematic angle are discrimination, stereotyping, oppression, patriarchy etc. So, women are badly characterized, portrayed, picturized etc in certain films by the filmmakers. “The largest departure from other branches of feminism, is the argument sex is itself constructed through language” (wikipedia) Critical analysis of Psycho Psycho, one of the popular films of the suspense/horror genre, was directed by the suspense auteur, Alfred Hitchcock, using the script of Joseph Stefano. Psycho is the film about a Psychotic killer who due to the loss of his mother becomes mentally unstable, and forms a kind of split personality killing number of persons. The central character Norman Bates owns and manages a motel near his mansion, and when a female character, Marion Crane lodges into the motel, she suspects that something might be wrong with Bates and his ‘supposed’ mother. Her eventual murder and also the other death of an investigator, bring in the characters of Sam and Lila, who unravel the mystery behind Bates behavior, escaping from death. This film made a major impact all over the world, bringing in a lot of concepts and theories. “Alfred Hitchcock Psycho (1960) shocked audiences into realizing that "the destruction of Psychological and physical sanctuary in America could not be indefinitely ignored or tranquilized away" (Whitfield) When the complete subject of horror/suspense films is discussed from the perspective of the Post Modern feminist theories, it appears to be severely shortsighted. That is the horror films of the early years as well as of the present times portrays women as the instigating factor and also as the characters who can be easily subjugated and victimized, thus forming many feminist theories. Instigating in the sense, if the male protagonist does something wrong or criminal, the women are only portrayed as the reason for his acts. Even though, the women could only be a reason, without any direct participation in the actual crimes, they are still portrayed in the negative light. Likewise, in Psycho also, the central character of Norman Bates is portrayed as doing all his crimes, due to the negative influence of her mother. That is, in the main murder scenes, Bates kills his victims by appearing like his mother, giving the impression that his Psychotic mother is committing all the crimes. He even talks like her mother in a harsh manner to convince about her supposed Psychotic nature to the other characters. And, then it is revealed that his mother has been dead for 10 years, and some serious issues between Norman and his mother is shown as the reason or the instigating factor for his behavior. Even though, no flashbacks are shown about the serious issues that could have changed Bates, in the final scenes, the character of forensic psychiatrist explains in a sketchy way how Bates mother’s actions only turned him into a ‘Psycho’. The psychiatrist explains to Lila and Sam that even though Bates mother is dead, Bates ‘makes’ her live through his body, to relieve himself from the guilty conscious of killing her. That is, Bates due to her mother’s ‘wrong’ behavior kills her and after killing her only he becomes guilt ridden and makes her live through him. (The antecedents of Norman Bates, mainly about his problematic and emotionally complicated relationship with his mother are clearly revealed in the sequels and in the prequel only). The picture that is portrayed is that Bates is doing all these murders for his mother, extricating himself from the crime. In the final scenes, his character is portrayed in a sympathetic way also, when he cries emotionally, when the skeletal corpse was revealed. So, when this film is viewed from the perspective of Post modern feminist theories, it is clear that it portrays woman in a negative light as the instigating factor of crimes, even though, no woman directly pushes the central character to commit crimes. But, this portrayal of woman as the instigating factor in Psycho continued in the following years as well, with many films based on this premise hitting the screen and ‘tuning’ the mindset of the filmgoers. “The theory during the 1970s and 80s was that the motivation for the crazed Psycho killer was the negative feelings that he associated with a relationship with a woman. This woman was most commonly his mother, sister or a romantic interest who has rejected him. This can be seen in films such as Psycho (1960), who has some serious issues with his mother” (everthing2.com) On the contrary, women are actually the victims of the violent behavior of the male characters. Even in “Psycho”, although Bates character commits murder in his mother’s appearance, he does not spare the female characters. Here another stereotype of woman is shown. That is, the commonly held stereotype about women is that, they are more jealous in nature than the men particularly when a man is their focus. So, in this film, Bates in the guise of his mother is shown killing the character of Marian, mainly because of the jealousy formed by the Norman’s ‘mother’ psyche due to Norman’s relationship with Marian. “The female is thus seen as entirely responsible for the creation of the rage and is punished throughout the film for its creation” (everything2.com). The murder and the attempt to murder the female characters in the film is also shown from the male perspective with woman as the easy and ‘enticing’ victim. That is, camera positions, lighting etc are used in such way that the female characters are shown as wrong or sexually active characters, who deserve punishment. For example, the murder shot of Marian in Psycho, which is the well known shower scene, is fully shot from the murders point of view, exhibiting the “male gaze” concept of showing every thing from the male characters’ point of view. The “male gaze” concept, that is associated with feminist theorist Laura Mulvey talks about the idea that a man looking at or a director filming a beautiful woman makes her an object, makes her passive beneath the male gaze which seeks control over woman by turning her into mere matter, into "meat" (Paglia qtd by Sragow) Even though this film was both a commercial and a critical success, with many considering it to be the top film of the suspense/horror genre, it faces criticisms when viewed from the post modernist feminist theories. This is not the only film of Hitchcock that came under the scanner of feminists due to his portrayal of female actors. “The issue of sexual violence must be central to any feminist analysis of the films of Alfred Hitchcock. In the film studies, Hitchcock is often viewed as the archetypal misogynist, who invites his audience to indulge their most sadistic fantasies against the female” (Modleski ). So, many films from his early works in 1930’s to the works delivered in the fag end of his career were criticized for being anti-women. His portrayal of woman as the instigating factor and as the sexual objectification did not conform to the feminist theories, raising criticism from many quarters. “From the moment feminism began to solidify its ideology in the early 70s, Hitchcock became a whipping boy for feminist theory” (Paglia qtd by Sragow). Works Cited Baym, N. (2007). The Agony of Feminism: Why Feminist Theory Is Necessary After all. Originally published in The Emperor ReDressed: Critiquing Critical Theory, ed Dwight Eddins. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995, pp. 101-117. 21 November 2007 http://www.english.uiuc.edu/-people-/emeritus/baym/essays/feminism.htm#*top Everything2.com (2006). Feminist Horror Film Theory (idea). Accessed December 1, 2007 http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1775841 Modleski, T. (1988) The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory. Routledge. Sragow, M (1999). The Savage ID. Accessed December 4, 2007. http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/08/13/hitchcock_paglia/index.html Whitfield, S. J. (2000). Sex and the Single Decade. American Literary History, Vol. 12, Wikipedia. (2007). Postmodern feminism. Accessed December 4, 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_feminism Read More